This labor camp was opened on April 12,1944 by a 300 man detail
that had left Cabanatuan on March 6, 1944. The draft was held
in Bilibid Prison until boarding the Taikoku Maru(*) on March 24, 1944. The ship arrived in Osaka via Takao,
Formosa and Nagasaki, Japan on April 10, 1944. Moving by Electric
train the following day and onward arriving at the mines in Moto
Yama on April 12, 1944. Our camp was on the southwest
side of a bowl like valley. Almost directly across from us was
another mine being worked by Korean Labor forces.

In August 1944 this group of Americans was broken up leaving
approximately 100 in camp. Other nationalities were transferred
in with the final camp made up of about 300 American, British
and Javanese Dutch troops in roughly equal proportions.

I remember no incidents of brutality. Occasionally someone
got slapped around but nothing of a serious nature. The Japanese
Camp Commander was a graduate of Northeastern University and
the interpreter was a mixture of Japanese-Caucasian ancestry.
Working conditions in the mines were rough, but the civilian
workers were in the most part kind to us.

The prisoners of war in this camp were evacuated to the town
of Onahoma on September 2, 1945 with information they would be
picked up by Naval vessel and transported to Yokohama. On arrival
at Onahoma no ships appeared and it was necessary to call on
the people of the town for billeting and help in food preparation.
Colonel Earl R. Short, USA (deceased), then a captain and senior
American, sent Captain Underwood by train to Tokyo on September
7th to find out why we had not been picked up. Captain Underwood
returned in two days. He had been promoted to Major and had instructions
regarding movement to the Tokyo area. All personnel, including
the Dutch East Indies and British Troops were to travel to Tokyo
by train.

Major Underwood asked for two volunteers to proceed to two other
camps that had been stranded and direct their evacuation. I was
one of the two volunteers. The other was a British Trooper, Singh.
Singh was the smallest Sikh in stature I had ever seen (about
5'2"). He was fluent in Chinese as well as Japanese and
had been our main source for translating the newspapers we were
able to obtain during our captivity. While I had learned some
Japanese, Singh was most valuable when it came to dealing with
the Japanese during the next two days while we assisting Major
Underwood in evacuating the other camps, Sendai 1 and 2.

The Japanese people in Onahoma were very hospitable, providing
housing and sharing food with us. From the food drops made while
we were still in camp, we had given a good share of the food
to the locals and the Korean Camp as we were leaving. However,
the habit of hoarding had not left us and we continued to share
what we carried with us with them. To insure against harm to
our hosts in Onahoma, Quartermaster Clerk Joseph J. Reardon,
USMC, established a guard unit with roving patrols. We had no
problems while in Onahama.

Martin S. Christie
Captain, USMC (Retired)

(*) Taikoku Maru was sunk, 17 May 1944 by US Submarine Sand Lance,
SS381 at 14'58"N-144'49"E.